Berklee College of Music

Research Media and Information

Exchange

Crossroads of Music and Wellness Music and Health Exchange Series

5-1-2019

Music Therapy Strategies for Wellness

Suzanne B. Hanser
Berklee College of Music, shanser@berklee.edu

Follow this and additional works at: https://remix.berklee.edu/mh-exchange-music-wellness

Part of the Music Therapy Commons

Recommended Citation
Hanser, Suzanne B., "Music Therapy Strategies for Wellness" (2019). Crossroads of Music and Wellness.
4.
https://remix.berklee.edu/mh-exchange-music-wellness/4

This White Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Music and Health Exchange Series at Research
Media and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Crossroads of Music and Wellness by an
authorized administrator of Research Media and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact
jmforce@berklee.edu.
Music Therapy Strategies for Wellness

Abstract
A revolution in healthcare, known as integrative health, is supporting the use of nontraditional treatments
that take into account the needs and capacities of the whole person. Music therapy is supported by a
growing body of evidence in favor of improved psychosocial, physical, neurological, emotional, and
spiritual outcomes, in addition to quality of life, and its interventions serve individuals at home, in hospital,
and wherever they might need a coping strategy.People encountering everyday stress, others with life-
threatening or painful conditions, and anyone else open to self-discovery can benefit.

Music and Health Institute Terms

Music Therapy; Pain; Receptive Music Methods; Recreative Music Methods; Stress

Disciplines
Music Therapy

This white paper is available at Research Media and Information Exchange: https://remix.berklee.edu/mh-exchange-
music-wellness/4
 Music Therapy Strategies for Wellness

Suzanne B. Hanser, EdD, MT-BC

Professor and Chair Emerita, Music Therapy
Berklee College of Music

In my career as a music therapist, I have worked with many people who have faced significant
health challenges: for instance, chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease; degenerative
conditions like Alzheimer’s disease; and psychological disorders, like anxiety and depression.
Through decades of this clinical work, I have implemented diverse music therapy strategies and
tested their impact in randomized controlled trials and other research methodologies. I have
attempted to uncover the mechanisms and the influence of these techniques on all sorts of people
– not just those in dire need – and have honed these strategies into music-based practices for
helping individuals get through everyday stress and strain. These techniques address the
struggles that come along with living a full life. Rather than simply “treating a patient,” they
attempt to empower individuals to identify their inner resources and potential in order to heal.
Instead of considering the patient or client a passive recipient of therapy, this approach refers to
therapist and individual as companions on the journey to wellness. Obviously, music
accompanies this journey and emphasizes the positive and beautiful in life, while uncovering
reserves of creativity to help manage unpleasant circumstances and solve problems. The
therapeutic goal becomes a holistic sense of wellness or wellbeing, rather than a cure for disease
or medical condition.

Fortunately, a revolution in healthcare, known as integrative health, is supporting the use of

nontraditional treatments that take into account the needs and capacities of the whole person.
Music therapy is one of many such services, amongst yoga, acupuncture, nutritional
supplements, exercise, and a variety of lifestyle recommendations. These practices encompass
ancient philosophies, medical and technological advances, and their combined forces to provide
innovative ways to heal. An outgrowth of complementary and alternative medicine, integrative
health counts on scientific evidence to determine those interventions that are most effective for
particular goals, and it offers interventions alongside more traditional treatments. Indeed, music
therapy is supported by a growing body of evidence in favor of improved psychosocial, physical,
neurological, emotional, and spiritual outcomes, in addition to quality of life, and its
interventions serve individuals at home, in hospital, and wherever they might need a coping
strategy.

The emerging specialty of psychoneuroimmunology provides a model for explaining some of the
ways in which music-based interventions are capable of enhancing health and wellbeing, as it
explicates the interrelationships between mind, body, and spirit. From the psychological
perspective, positive psychology is building theories to form a foundation for the use of music as
therapy, including the stress/coping model, the breakout principle, the broaden-and-build model
of positive psychology, and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Of course, music therapists were
some of the earliest positive psychologists, as they have consistently built on the imaginative and
musical abilities that every person holds. From a neurological point of view, areas of the brain
that are activated by different forms of musical behavior and are responsive to music are widely
distributed. Every lobe of the brain may be active when one is engaged with music: the frontal
lobe when a person analyzes the music; the parietal lobe, when they sense the fingers on the
strings of a violin, for example; the temporal lobe to process auditory stimuli and sounds; and the
occipital lobe to galvanize visual images that are elicited by certain pieces of music. The limbic
system is flooded with memories and associations, while creating chills, changes in heart rate,
and other involuntary responses as a function of music that carries meaning. Furthermore, the
reward centers are involved, dopaminergic axes are intensified, and even the opioid-mediating
midbrain can be excited by musical stimuli. From the immunological vantage point, recent
research points to the effectiveness of music interventions in affecting neurochemicals like
salivary immunoglobulin A, stress hormones, and other markers of resilience.

Stress and pain are phenomena that can plague anyone, but suffering is optional. There are a
number of music therapy strategies that address these unpleasant realities of life, while unlocking
that sixth sense – one’s natural creativity, intuition, or felt sense – inspiring people to grow,
evolve, and fulfill their potential. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) handles stressors in a
variety of ways and offers clues as to how music therapy works. The ANS is composed of the
sympathetic part (SANS) – the one that stimulates the fight/flight/freeze response once
responsible for saving humankind by tackling threats to human survival, and the parasympathetic
part (PANS) – the portion that relaxes and allows for rest and digestion. While music therapy is
sometimes indicated to produce a deeply relaxing state of mind and body, even an altered state of
consciousness, it can also excite and energize a depressed or apathetic condition. Because it is
capable of bringing the ANS into homeostasis – balance, stability, and equilibrium, few other
modalities can be as effective as music therapy in this process of allostasis.

Pain is actually a sensation that is based on a number of factors. It is a response to an insult or

injury, but its perception is mediated by nerve fibers carrying information about the insult to the
brain. The neuromatrix theory of pain has established that several domains affect the response to
a painful stimulus. These include behavioral, conscious, cognitive, motoric, sensory, and
emotional dimensions, and are processed in the central nervous system. A network involving the
prefrontal, somatosensory, insular, and motor cortices plus spinal cord, brain stem, thalamus, and
limbic system determines how pain is felt. Because music is processed in so many parts of the
brain, and has impact on many of these dimensions, it can change the experience of pain.

Music therapy strategies to cope with stress and pain are numerous and multifaceted. In Manage
Your Stress and Pain through Music, Dr. Susan Mandel and I present techniques that work
through the integration of mind, body, and spirit. In addition, interventions that have had
significant effects on the experience of illness/wellness are described in my book, Integrative
Heath through Music Therapy: Accompanying the Journey from Illness to Wellness. These
strategies are designed to provide pathways through the journey, and include ways to comfort,
awaken, find the musical self, cope, and bring peace. People encountering everyday stress, others
with life-threatening or painful conditions, and anyone else open to self-discovery can benefit.
Some of the more imaginative strategies developed by companions on the journey are described
below.

A man with leukemia creates original musical compositions, based on his laboratory reports of
white/red blood cell and platelet counts. A young woman with brain cancer learns to play the
ukulele and sings her way through chemotherapy with joy and life. A woman who panics when
she has her blood drawn hums to herself, focuses on the sounds, and “forgets” that the nurse has
just placed a needle into her vein. A man who is hospitalized with massive edema writes a song
that proves to be an existential analysis of what it is like to be in the medical center, knowing
neither his diagnosis nor what the future will bring. A woman with sickle cell disease who is
experiencing a painful vaso-occlusive episode concentrates on her new piano skills during
hospitalization and finds that she has a talent for this. A young man who is overwhelmed with
stress takes a musical holiday, when he chants a personal power song that affirms his ability to
cope. A daughter soothes her mother in her final hours, by singing the lullaby her mother sang to
her as a baby. An adolescent copes with debilitating stress by singing and analyzing songs with
themes of gratitude, love, and hope. A depressed older man plays the drum along with his music
therapist, as she gradually accelerates the tempo and energy of her blues at the keyboard. But it is
not only these musical experiences that define the therapy. The presence of a qualified music
therapist makes it possible to create meaning from these musical encounters, process the affect
and impact, and gain insights that will serve these individuals, no matter what the future brings.

Self-awareness, mastery, and a sense of flow are some of the by-products of music therapy.
Bolstered by the insights encountered on their journeys to wellness, these companions
demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit and the remarkable personal resources that are
accessible when music brings out the best and most creative aspects of life.

References

Hanser, S.B., & Mandel, S.E. (2010. Manage your stress and pain through music. Boston:
Berklee Press.

Hanser, S.B. (2016). Integrative health through music therapy: Accompanying the journey from
illness to wellness. London: Palgrave Macmillan.